1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle camera device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known an in-vehicle camera device arranged on a bumper, a grille, or the like of a vehicle to take images of an outside view. The in-vehicle camera device includes, in a camera casing, a circuit substrate on which an image pickup device, such as a CCD (charge-coupled device) is mounted. On a front face of the camera casing, there is an optical system, such as lenses, through which outside light is transmitted into the camera casing and then received by the image pickup device to effect an imaging operation of the in-vehicle camera device.
The circuit substrate is formed with input/output (I/O) terminals for inputting/outputting electrical signals. The I/O terminals are connected to connecter terminals penetrating through a part of the camera casing and then electrically connected to an outside equipment through the connector terminals.
In the conventional in-vehicle camera device mentioned above, there is a case of adjusting the positional relationship between an optical axis of the optical system and the image pickup device mounted on the circuit substrate. In detail, the position of the optical axis is adjusted by moving the circuit substrate along a plane perpendicular to the optical axis.
Therefore, as it is impossible to fixedly connect the I/O terminals of the circuit substrate with the connector terminal inside the camera casing, the in-vehicle camera device has been adapted so as to connect the I/O terminals with the connector terminals through the intermediary of wire harness, FFC (flexible flat cable), FPC (flexible printed circuit), or the like.
However, since the so-constructed conventional in-vehicle camera device is required to ensure accommodation space for wire harness, FFC, FPC, or the like, within the camera casing, it is difficult to miniaturize the device as well as the constitution of the device and the assembling operation are relatively complicated.
In order to solve such problems about the conventional in-vehicle camera device, JP 2006-351210A (Patent Literature 1) proposes an in-vehicle camera device as illustrated in FIG. 1. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a camera casing 1 of the in-vehicle camera device includes a front casing portion 3 having an optical system 2 and a rear casing portion 4 having a connector housing 8. Accommodated in the front casing portion 3 is a circuit substrate 5 on which an image pickup device 5a is mounted on one surface of the substrate 5 and I/O terminals 5b are mounted on the other surface of the substrate 5.
The rear casing portion 4 is provided inside with an anisotropic conductive sheet 6 having thin metallic wires 6a embedded therein at regular intervals, and connector terminals 7. The anisotropic conductive sheet 6 is retained by a holding portion 4a in the rear casing portion 4. A part of each of the connector terminals 7 is embedded in a housing base portion 8a, while a front end portion 7a of each of the terminals 7 protrudes from a bottom surface 4b of the holding portion 4.
Then, as illustrated with arrows in FIG. 1, when the front casing portion 3 and the rear casing portion 4 are assembled into one body, the I/O terminals 5a of the circuit substrate 5 can be electrically connected to the connector terminals 7 through the thin metallic wirers 6a of the anisotropic conductive sheet 6.